Oregon Business & Industry Board Statement

The Oregon Business & Industry Board of Directors on Tuesday affirmed that, based on agreements with legislative leadership, it is neutral on the tax provisions of the Student Success legislation pending at the Legislature.

“We support the Legislature’s efforts to improve education outcomes in Oregon. However, the tax discussions this year have been extensive and difficult. We appreciate that legislative leadership has made an effort to hear our point of view,” said Scott Parrish, chair of the OBI Board and CEO of A-dec, a manufacturing business based in Newberg.

“Knowing since fall that a significant tax proposal was likely, and that Democrats would hold a supermajority of both houses of the Legislature, we instructed our staff to focus on mitigating the impact of a broad new tax as much as possible,” Parrish continued. “While we will never support a tax on sales, the package that moved forward last week addressed some of our concerns and included agreements on other matters that enabled our staff to indicate we were neutral on the tax provisions of the Student Success bill.”

Mr. Parrish said the position articulated by staff on April 29 was based on policy direction set by the board last fall. “Like any organization, we have diverse opinions within OBI and we respect everyone’s point of view. We arrived at our position after working closely with other business organizations and developing an approach that achieved broad buy-in. We thank everyone who has worked closely with us on these issues over the last several months.”